Senior Trump administration officials yesterday defended the fatal shooting of a US citizen by immigration agents in Minneapolis even as video evidence contradicted their version of events and tensions grew between local law enforcement and federal officers.
As residents visited a makeshift shrine of flowers and candles in frigid temperatures and snow to mark Saturday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti – the second shooting death involving federal officers in Minneapolis this month – Trump administration officials stated that Pretti assaulted officers, compelling them to fire in self-defence.
“The victims are border patrol agents,” Gregory Bovino, Border Patrol commander-at-large, told CNN’s State of the Union programme. That official line, echoed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other members of the Trump administration yesterday, triggered outrage among local law enforcement, many Minneapolis residents and Democrats on Capitol Hill, who pointed to bystander videos that appear to show a different version of events.
Videos from the scene verified and reviewed by Reuters showed Pretti, 37, holding a phone in his hand, not a gun, as he tries to help other protesters who had been pushed to the ground by agents.
As the videos begin, Pretti can be seen filming while a federal agent pushes away one woman and shoves another woman to the ground.
Pretti moves between the agent and the women, then raises his left arm to shield himself as the agent pepper sprays him. Several agents then take hold of Pretti – who struggles with them – and force him onto his hands and knees. As the agents pin Pretti down, someone shouts what sounds like a warning about the presence of a gun.
Video footage then appears to show one of the agents removing a gun from Pretti and stepping away from the group with it.
Moments later, an officer with a handgun points at Pretti’s back and fires four shots in quick succession.
Several more shots can then be heard as another agent appears to fire at Pretti.
Tensions in the city were already running high after a federal agent fatally shot US citizen Renee Good on January 7. Trump officials said she was trying to ram the agent with her car but other observers have said bystander video suggests she was trying to steer away from the officer who shot her.
Federal authorities have refused to allow local officials to participate in their investigation of the incident.
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